This morning after reading Genesis 3, I felt a gravitational weight pressing down on me. The weight of lies. “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened; and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The awful lie that to disobey God will make us like God. This event is not about a tree causing the fall of Adam and Eve. It’s about deciding for ourselves, with Satan’s help, what is good and evil; and we have seen so much evil.

As I was praying after reading this chapter, I felt such weight permeate my very soul. I felt such sorrow. What if. What if Eve hadn’t listened to Satan’s lies that sounded so promising. What if she had said no. We’ll never know.

There are consequences to sin. It’s interesting to me that after God let them know the results of what they had done, that He clothed them. They had hastily put together fig leaves when they first heard Him walking in the garden. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. v. 21. He continued to care for them in their simple need for clothes. He protected them from living forever in sin. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. v. 24.

The sorrow I felt in reading this stayed with me for quite some time. How could it not? Then God lifted me up and reminded me sin separates us from what is good. Walls of darkness confine us and we can’t see anything but the prison of our sins. Our eyes become blinded. We see the world all around us but it’s the world of good and evil. Can you imagine a world without evil? Our minds can only imagine such a place before “reality” intrudes.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. 1 John 3:7-10.

God is love. 1 John 4:16. God didn’t leave me in the sorrow of the weight of realizing all that sin has done to us. He lifted me out to walk with Him in the light of His love. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 1 John 5:18-20.

God keeps me safe when temptations throw their darts at me. I take them to God and ask for His help and protection, His forgiveness when I sin. Eve could have done that but she had to learn the hard way and so have every single one of her children after her. God is the One who loves us and keeps us safe. His love helps us to see the created beauty He made so that we can find comfort in knowing He has us; His plan is for our good and our healing and our joy with Him…lifted up out of the darkness of sin to His beautiful light of love for us. We are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. And He will take our hand when we ask. Choices.